Tomorrow is an overall city tour in the morning with lunch on a river cruise and a river tour and a walking tour in the afternoon. There is an optional circus tour in the early evening or a city lights tour in the late evening. I talked Doug into the Moscow Circus and Guy and Yvonne will join us. Everyone else is saying on board in the evening. There are different walking groups and we are taking the fast group where you go faster, hear less and see more. I like all the facts, so am not crazy about the hearing less piece, but like the seeing more piece.

We found Ngaire and Ken for dinner but never found Guy and Yvonne again. We had a fun dinner, went to drool over the imperial suite and went our separate ways about 9. We're a wild crowd! 

Dinner was surprisingly ok. I really liked the Mediterranean salad, but thought the soups were mediocre. The vegetable stew was good and I liked the cheese plate. I heard the chicken was a tad over cooked.

Brad and Leslie are directly across the hall, Guy and Yvonne are two doors down from Leslie and Ngaire is down a flight.

Today, Brad, Leslie, Doug and I took a private tour beginning at 10. our Guide, Anna, was a petite, attractive, witty blonde who seamlessly whisked us away to our Mercedes Mini Van. She pointed out various key monuments and buildings, e.g.,  KGB headquarters, on our way to our first stop, a  top secret cold war bunker located 18 floors or 60 meters beneath Moscow in the Taganskaya area. It was located in a quiet, upscale neighborhood in a shell of a house that was adjacent to the metro. Decommissioned and sold off at auction, this ex-military communications post is now a museum dedicated to the Cold War. Complete with KGB rooms (now rehearsal space for heavy metal bands and Christmas parties ) we were led through kilometres of tunnels. The Cold War Museum is based in the former top-secret Soviet command post, N42, known more simply as GO-42. The role of this bunker included acting as the federal telephone/ telegraph communication center, the HQ for the Soviet leadership and the Ministry of Communications, as well as the Moscow area anti-aircraft defense communications center. In a global nuclear war, this communication centre would have been one of the main command posts of the Soviet Government. The tour itself travels 60m below ground and we were led through all the halls and the Duty officer rooms. Museum exhibits included the military communication devices of the soviet era and we watched an eerily produced film about the ‘Cold War’ between NATO and USSR and explore the 7,000 sq m of this unique underground area. The film made the Japanese look like victims and the entire experience brought chills to our spines as it brought home how close we were to a potential nuclear war. We even experienced a live raid and had the opportunity to dress up in actual gear and utilize the equipment. The bunker was first set up in 1951 and only ceased as a result of 1) the seepage of water into the tunnel 2) expenses too dear for repair and 3) the realization that it wouldn't stand up to current nuclear weapons. We were all pretty creeped out.

Needing something uplifting, we visited the new Cathedral of Christ the Savior and walked over the new bridge over the Moscow River. This Cathedral is a Russian Orthodox 2000 reconstruction  in a neo Byzantine style of an 1883 church. After the Revolution and, more specifically, the death of Lenin, the prominent site of the cathedral was chosen by the Soviets as the site for a monument to socialism known as the Palace of the Soviets. This monument was to rise in modernistic, buttressed tiers to support a gigantic statue of Lenin perched on top of a dome with his arm raised in the air. On 5 December 1931, by order of Stalin's minister Kaganovich, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was dynamited and reduced to rubble. For a long time, these were the only reminders of the largest Orthodox church ever built. The construction of the Palace of Soviets was interrupted owing to a lack of funds, problems with flooding from the nearby Moscow River, and the outbreak of war. The flooded foundation hole remained on the site until, under Nikita Khrushchev, it was transformed into the world's largest open air swimming pool, named Moskva Pool. However, the pool was damaging the impressionist paintings at the Pushkin museum.

A construction fund for a new Cathedral was initiated in 1992 and money began to pour in from ordinary citizens in the autumn of 1994. In this year the pool was demolished and the cathedral reconstruction commenced. About one million Muscovites donated money for the project. About one million Muscovites donated money for the project. This cathedral is far more impressive inside than St. basils and i can't say i have seen uch an impressively built modern church in all of my travels anywhere. 

A footbridge across the river from Balchug was constructed between 2003 and 2004. From this bridge, facing the back of the cathedral, to the right, across the street, you can see the walls of the Kremlin (which means fortress in Russian and most Russian cities have them). Of course, in Moscow, this means the red walls and gold domes of the presidential palace. The president doesn't live here but greets heads of states here. To the immediate right, there is an old Bolshevik apartment complex and to  left, there is an impressively ugly statue of Peter the Great on a ship mast in the river. This was offered to be sold to the US as Christopher Columbus but we wisely turned it down,  and its head was changed to Peter's and sold to Moscow and it is now known as Peter Columbus. Buildings in Moscow are not high, as in Paris, as the Moscovites wish to preserve                   their skyline, but you can see impressive and attractive skyscrapers in the business district in the distance obviously being constructed outside of the center of the city. Before leaving, Brad insisted that Doug share his rubles to purchase some beer made out of bread (which Doug had seen on an episode of Anthony Bourdain) and apple mors. This turned our to be lunch. It was just okay.

We then drove through suburbs to Novodevichy  (New Maiden) convent and cemetery. Everyone seems to recommend a visit here. The convent was the home to many an outcast ex wife and was the final home to Sophia  (Peter the Great's sister who tried to prevent him from taking over from her when he turned 17) when she lost power from ruling and was exhumed. This fortress like place provided a chaste but elegant home whose purpose was to sequester daughters, sisters, and wayward wives or wives that got in husband's ways of the nobility. Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great sent their female foes here. There are lovely icons that decorate the walls. We saw car after car of brides here, which we thought was an unusual spot considering the origin of the place. The Hummer and Mercedes limos were decorated with two golden rings on the roofs, signifying 0-0 at the start of the marriage. This is kind of an interesting take of the years ahead! More interesting, and well worth the visit is the cemetery which has headstones from key Russian leaders and influential persons-scientists, dancers, musicians, clowns, writers, etc. The headstones are sculptures and works of art. Some of the famous located here are Chekov, Eisenstein, Khrushchev, Gorbachev's wife, Raisa, and Molotov.  

A fascinating a Red (which means beautiful) city! By the way the walls to the Kremlin were originally white until 150 years ago. I'll write more tomorrow.